The Soviet Tu-144 became the first passenger plane to fly twice the speed of sound
Long before the retirement of the Concorde, the Soviet Union's 'Concordski' set a world record by becoming the first commercial passenger aircraft to fly at double the speed of sound.
In 1970, the Tupolev Tu-144 made aviation history by exceeding Mach 2, or twice the speed of sound. This sleek, needle-nosed aircraft was the Soviet Union's ambitious answer to Western supersonic travel, beating its rival, the Concorde, to this specific milestone by several months.
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